Shattered (16 page)

"I don't have a staff working for me, so I have to do all of
this work
," I replied sarcastically. "Anyway, shouldn't you be at Ada's during the lunch rush? Doesn't it get busy in there at this time?"

"Yeah. But Emily and Tommy can handle it. I just hired a couple new waitresses, so Tommy runs it in my absence and Emily helps out the newbies. Besides, one thing my mom always preached was making time for work and play. She said you can't have one without the other." His eyes light up as he spoke about his mother.

"You might be right. My dad would say stuff like that too," I quipped, then took a long swig of my water.

"What do your parents do?" he asked.  My eyes shot open as my chest began heaving up and down. "Do they work for the mob or something?" he laughed, but stopped after noticing my expression.

"My parents are deceased," I quickly responded, and then drank more from my water bottle.

"I'm sorry. I was being an insensitive prick. How long ago?"

"My dad passed a little over three years ago, and my mom just recently passed."

He studied me for a minute and shifted on his butt, stretching his legs out in front of him, while leaning back and balancing his weight on his hands.

"Are you okay? Were you close to your parents?"

"Yes and yes," I coldly answered, not wanting to dig into a still freshly opened wound.

"That's the hardest part. You never realize how much your parents mean to you until they're gone."

My emotions were starting to flare again. I didn't like talking about my parents' deaths and especially not with someone who didn't know them and barely knew me.

"What makes you such a damn expert?" I asked, annoyed that he was carrying on with this conversation.

I watched him sit straight up and pull up his tank top. His torso was also full of tattoos, and just over his heart was a large, red heart shape with vines growing out of it, the face of a woman in the middle.

"This is my mom, Ada." I leaned in to get a closer look. Whoever tatted her on his chest did a superb job because I could see that he closely resembled his mother. "When I dropped out of U-Dub, it was because my mom had gotten sick. I couldn't keep up with school
and
try to take care of her, so I put school on hold and devoted myself to my mom."

 I blinked a couple of times, feeling like a complete jackass for snapping at him minutes earlier.

"What happened? If you don't mind me asking."

He smiled. "I don't mind at all." He took another drink of his water. "My mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer a few years ago, and although they removed her uterus, the cancer had spread and moved rapidly. After numerous bouts with chemo and radiation, she was just so weak and frail and didn't want to continue on with it." I watched him swallow a lump that had formed in his throat. "I spent every waking moment with her, attending to her every need. I even painted her nails," he laughed. I allowed a smile to creep across my face. "I was lying next to her when she took her last breath, and even though it hurt like hell, I watched her die with a smile on her face. It made me feel so much better."

I closed my eyes, fighting back tears. When I opened them, Grayson was looking at me, smiling.

"Ada's was her idea.  She had been saving money for years to try and make it happen. The one thing I remember her constantly telling me was to work hard and play harder. She worked at a bank and rarely had vacation time, so she always told me to find a balance."

I wiped away the stray tear that had fallen from my eye. Grayson leaned over and wiped away any remnants of it. The soft padding of his thumb gliding across my face made me want to hold his hand in place; he seemed to be soothing the ache that had surfaced since hearing his tale.

"What about your dad?" I asked cautiously, not wanting to drudge up another emotionally gripping tale of loss.

Grayson sucked down the rest of his water before saying, "He's a dead beat. My dad walked out when my mom told him she was pregnant."

"So you're an only child?" I asked, surprised that we seemed to have so much in common.

"Yup." He nodded emphatically. "What about you?"

"Yeah. No siblings for me either."

"So we're both orphans," he joked, and I actually let out a slight laugh. He laughed with me, but then stopped and smiled. Grayson leaned forward and tucked some loose hair behind my ear. "It's getting late. I didn't want to keep you out all afternoon, just wanted to get some food in you, and get to look at your beautiful face."

I hit his leg. "Turn off the sentimental machine, Rivera." He stood and then took my hand, pulling me up and into his chest.

"I enjoyed this. Thanks, Dallis."

I stared up into his deep blue eyes which were effectively melting me at the moment. He leaned down and without even thinking, I met him halfway, planting a warm kiss on his lips. When we pulled away he smiled and licked his bottom lip. I gave him an incredulous look, wondering what he was doing.

"Ahhhh," he breathed. "I'll never get enough of the taste of you."

Licking my own lip, I stared back at him, slowly allowing a smile to spread across my face.

He put his arm around my shoulder, holding me close to his side, and walked me back to my office.

Over the course of the next week, Grayson and I saw each other almost every day. He'd bring lunch to my office or I'd walk over to Ada's and have lunch with him there. Our conversations got lighter, not focusing so much on the gloom and doom of our lives, but instead learning more about one another. Emily, Tommy, and Patrick were his three best friends from U-Dub, and while Tommy and Patrick had graduated with Business Management degrees, Emily was still a student, part-time. I thought it was incredibly warming to know that his friends had worked tirelessly with him to make his dreams a reality. I saw the bond in his friendship with those three that I had with Miranda. For only children who were now, for all intents and purposes, orphans, bonds with others were especially crucial to maintain a sense of normalcy.

Saturday morning, I was awakened by the chime of my cell phone. Scrubbing my eyes, I realized it was only 8:13a.m. After working incessantly over the past few weeks, I was looking forward to a weekend of sleeping in. I stared down at the phone and saw Grayson's name light up, so I answered.

"Hello," I said groggily.

"Were you still asleep?" Grayson asked, with a little too much enthusiasm in his voice.

"Yes," I glumly replied.

"Well get up. Meet me down at the Seattle Center at ten."

"Seriously?" I asked, hoping he would get the clue that I was still very much interested in sleeping.

"As a heart attack," he replied. "Dress casually. I'll see you in a bit."

I groaned and he laughed as he hung up. I stared at the ceiling fan a few minutes more before pulling myself up and into the bathroom. I didn't feel like I'd had enough sleep and my hair was a wavy mess, but I wasn't interested in doing anything special to it. The sun was shining, but Seattle had a way of tricking you when it came to the weather, so I threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, snatching up a hoodie to throw in my Jeep in case I needed it. I grabbed a measly cereal bar and ran out to my yellow baby.

Just as I'd expected, the Seattle Center was bustling with people. There were crowds for miles. I wasn't sure how I'd find Grayson in this mess, but just as I was contemplating having to maneuver my way through the crowd, my phone buzzed and a text from him came through.

*Grayson*

We're Riding the Ducks today. Meet me over here.

I cringed reading his text. As long as I had lived in Seattle, I had never had any desire to want to Ride the Ducks. Colby was always vehemently against riding, saying the people on those tours looked like kooks and clowns, so we never rode them.

Walking up, I easily spotted Grayson in the crowd. Even though the weather was still quite mild, he wore a tank top, showing off his artwork arms. He smiled large as he spotted me, and I did nothing to try and hide the scowl taking over my face as I made my way to the ridiculous duck inspired vehicles lined up, loading passengers onto their decks.

"What's wrong?" Grayson asked, his face shifting to concern.

"Ride the Ducks?" I asked. He relaxed and smiled, nodding his head enthusiastically.

"Have you never done this before?"

"No," I answered, staring into his beautiful cerulean eyes.

He put his arm around my shoulder and walked us over to the loading area for one of the ducks. The driver wore a ridiculously large duck billed hat on his head, and made all sorts of references to ducks while taking tickets. Apparently I wasn't hiding my dismay very well because the driver immediately pegged me as the challenge for the ride and handed me one of his god-awful duck billed hats, which Grayson eagerly took and placed on my head. I could have killed him.

We took our seats near the front since the driver pointed us there, and listened as he went over all of the safety rules. He then started up the vehicle, which rumbled like a tank, and played the song
Celebrate
as we pulled out onto the street. The driver instructed all of the passengers to shout and yell towards me whenever the song said "
come on,"
and Grayson would grab my arms and throw them up in the air. He looked a bit silly, totally inked up and singing along while smiling and joking around with all of the other passengers. The driver asked them to pull out their quackers, which were shaped in the form of a duck bill and made a hideously loud duck quacking sound. I hadn't seen one yet so I inwardly sighed, thankful that I wouldn't be participating in that part of the tour. Unfortunately, my relief didn't last long, because Grayson shifted in his seat and out of his back pocket he pulled out two quackers hanging from green rope. He smiled at me while shaking his head and saying, "Did you think I'd let you out of this experience?" and hung it around my neck. The psycho looking driver gave me a couple of quacks and thumbs up in his rear view mirror.

I could feel myself dying from embarrassment on the inside.

The tour took us by the Space Needle, along the Seattle Waterfront, through historic Pioneer Square, and by Pike Place Market. I damn near lost my mind as the driver took us to a boat ramp and the vehicle we were riding in transformed into a floating vessel. We floated along Lake Union, passing Gasworks Park and watching hydroplanes take off and land on the water. My thoughts floated back to the photo shoot of the happily, in love couple, Bryant and Shana, who I had shot that beautiful sunny day when I was still with Colby. I took in the atmosphere and gazed into Grayson's eyes, as he wrapped me in his arms. I saw raw passion and excitement whenever I looked into his eyes, and I laughed slightly at how annoyingly fun this tour was turning out to be.

As we made our way back to the departure point, the driver put on some caveman style music, which required the passengers to chant along while waving clubs in the air. He made sure to point me out and told the rest of the passengers to get me into the festivities. Grayson made sure to chant the loudest, even taking my hand that held my club, which was passed around during the tour, and chucking it into the air whenever the chanting part came up. When we parked, I was never more thankful for a ride to end. As we exited the vehicle, the driver shook our hands and thanked me for being such a good sport. I would not have called myself a good sport, but towards the end I did loosen up a bit and semi enjoyed the ride.

Pictures were taken as souvenirs with a circular float and the driver in the background. Grayson leaned down and kissed me just as the picture was snapped, sending exciting shivers through my body. It was completely unexpected, yet definitely welcomed.

Strolling down Broad Street in search of food, Grayson took my hand and intertwined our fingers. We settled on a small hole-in-the-wall rice bowl restaurant. Grayson's eyes lit up when he saw it, saying they had the best food in town. I asked him to order for me as I went to the restroom and, since we were being so openly affectionate, I didn't hesitate to plant a kiss on his lips before turning and walking away. When I returned, Grayson was seated with two drinks sitting in front of him.

"What did you order?" I asked, curious to know what I'd be eating.

"The best damn steamed rice and teriyaki chicken you've ever had."

I smiled at him and took a sip of my drink. The cashier brought our bowls out and the aroma filling my nose had me digging in even before Grayson. He eyed me, surprised, but had a smirk on his face. I tossed a balled up napkin at him, hitting him in the nose before asking, "What? You've never seen a hungry girl before?"

"Not like that. You're going to bite your fork in half." I lightly kicked him under the table and he laughed, obviously appreciating the fact that his joke did not go unnoticed. I finished my bowl long before Grayson did, but I had a satisfied, fuck it mentality about it. I had eaten breakfast on the run because of him, so I deserved to devour my food.

 We sat after finishing our bowls, holding hands above the table. I felt like I could stare into his eyes for days. Grayson rubbed the top of my hand and calmly asked, "Did you have fun today?"